Canada

The authorities in the Canadian province of Ontario have announced the launch of the Green Ontario Fund, with the nation’s leading PV industry body hailing the new scheme as a potential boon for future solar deployment. 

With the primary purpose of financing residential PV in Canada’s province of Nova Scotia, the Solar Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF), dubbed Solar Scotia Energy, has recently met its minimum funding needed to start and to date has raised nearly one million dollars.

The power provider has entered into a partnership with AMP Solar, a Canada-based solar developer, to offer storage solutions for its Ontario customers.

Canada’s largest and northernmost province is set to launch net metering for residential customers.

The Canadian province’s first pilot solar park will be built by local hydropower producer and utility Hydro-Quebec. The region is also preparing to support solar distributed generation through net metering.

Rebates can cover up to 30% of the costs for buying and installing a residential or commercial PV system. The program is expected to enable the deployment or around 50 MW of solar capacity.

The Canadian developer will build 15 ground-mounted solar plants in Peterborough. The projects are owned by the local utility and the town’s government.

The Canadian renewable energy company has taken full control of the joint venture that acquired the solar unit of Carmanah Technologies Inc. in April. Furthermore, the company has secured a contract to build a 17 MW ground-mounted solar plant near Calgary.

Under the new rules, which will come into force on July 1, the size limit of 500 kW for power generators installed under the scheme will be removed.

Renewable energy power generators installed under the scheme will sell power surplus to local utilities Labrador Hydro and Newfoundland Power starting from July 2017.